Statistical Terms Glossary

A usually swift acquisition of property (as land or patent rights), often by fraud or force. Acquisition by foreign investors and on a large scale of farmland in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia and Southeast Asia, driven inter alia by food and energy security concerns.

The concept of husbandry is widely understood when applied to crops and animals. As a concept of signifying understanding, management and improvement, it is equally applicable to land.

A rule of conduct or procedure regarding land and established by custom, agreement, or authority.

The process of measuring the difference in elevation between two or more points.

This is the process of managing the use and development of land resources.

A place where rights of use and ownership of land are transferred, for example, through sale or lease.

A legally recognized right to acquire, to use and to transfer land.

By convention, land can only be owned by residents. So if a nonresident purchases land, then a notional resident entity is created on which the nonresident has a financial claim.

This is the set of intentions embodied in various policy instruments that are adopted by the state to organize land tenure and land use. It is usually guided by a set of basic principles, some of which are based on international agreements, others of which are based on specific national circumstances.

Agricultural output per unit of land.; The amount of primary production per unit of land area.

The restoration of productivity or use to lands that have been degraded by past human activities or have been impaired by natural phenomena.; The operation or process of changing the condition or characteristics of land so that improved utilization can be achieved. This may be accomplished by various means such as irrigation of arid land, drainage of swamp or waterlogged land, protection from flood menace of land constantly subject to overflow.

This refers to the redistribution of land holdings and to changes in the agrarian structure, usually involving the resettlement of farmers or the landless. Land redistribution is normally carried out by the state and may or may not be effected in accordance with customary land management.

This is the generic term for modifications in the legal and institutional framework governing land policy. It is intended to implement changes in the political, economic and social environment.

Land and land resources refer to a delineable area of the earth's terrestrial surface, encompassing all attributes of the biosphere immediately above or below its surface, including those of the near surface climate, the soil and terrain forms, the surface hydrology (including shallow lakes, rivers, marshes and swamps), the near-surface sedimentary layers and associated groundwater and geohydrological reserve, the plant and animal populations, the human settlement pattern and physical results of past and present human activity, such as terracing, water storage or drainage structures, roads, buildings, etc.

Conserving biodiversity within agricultural landscapes.

Maximizing the land area available only for conservation purposes through more intensive agricultural production on the land area devoted to it.